30 Bad Answers to Job Interview Questions

Being unprepared for a job interview is usually the kiss-of-death for that opportunity.

Some of these answers are funny (unless the job seeker really wanted the job), and some of them are a little scary. Best to be prepared and avoid giving these answers in job interviews, assuming you are hoping for a job offer!

Opportunity-Ending Answers to Common Job Interview Questions

These answers to 5 common job interview questions demonstrated either a complete lack of preparation on the part of the job seeker, or a complete lack of understanding about how to be successful in a job interview. Regardless of the cause, the result was the same: opportunities lost!

What do you know about us?

This question is often asked at the beginning of a job interview, and employers view your answer as a signal about how interested you are in working there. It's not a hard question to answer, if you are prepared.

Why Do You Want to Work Here?

This is your chance to demonstrate what you know about the employer and to show the interviewer(s) what you bring to the job, emphasizing the benefits to the employer (not to you) for hiring you. A little flattery about the company -- if you are sincere -- is appropriate here, but don't go overboard.

These answers are shallow and completely focused on the benefit to the job seeker:

Tell me about yourself.

This question is not an invitation to confess your greatest hopes or your biggest sins. But it is another opportunity to show the employer how your skills and experience match up with the requirements of their job. Having nothing to say may be interpreted by the employer as lack of interest and/or lack of preparation.

These answers did not inspire the interviewer to recommend hiring these job seekers:

There's not much to tell. (Professional spy?)

My real job is rock musician. I'm the drummer. But our agent quit, so we don't have any gigs scheduled the rest of the year. We're looking for a new agent, and I hope to get back to that soon. That's what I really do.

Do you have any questions?

Job seekers often shoot themselves in the foot with this question, as you'll see in these responses. Would you want to hire the people who gave any of these answers? Neither would I.

Yes, you should have questions! But not these:

Will I need to pass a drug test before I get hired? How much notice will I have?

No.

Do you do background checks?

Will you be checking my references?

How often do people get raises here?

Do you cover sick days? How many can I have each month?

How much vacation will I get?

How big is the employee discount? Is there a limit on how much I can buy? Is it OK to resell?

Would you like to go out for a drink after this? (flirt after accepting a job offer, if appropriate)

Most of those answers were premature or downright scary. Don't think that having no questions to ask is a show of respect, as some people mistakenly believe. Instead, having no questions demonstrates a lack of appropriate interest and also a lack of understanding about what an appropriate question is.

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.